At least 12 people were killed on Saturday in two separate car bomb attacks in Baghdad targeting security forces, police sources said.
The self-styled Islamic State terrorist group was behind the larger blast, according to the Amaq News Agency that supports the group.
The attack on a security checkpoint in the northern Al-Husseiniya district killed nine people and wounded 28 others, Reuters reported.
There was no immediate claim of the second bombing, which targeted an army convoy in Arab Al-Jabour, an area of date palm-groves on Baghdad’s southern outskirts. Three people were killed there and 11 others were wounded.
The Iraqi government has retaken several major cities from IS in the past year, including the western cities of Ramadi and Hit, and slowly pushed the militants back towards the Syrian border.
Security has gradually improved in Baghdad, which witnessed daily attacks a decade ago, though bombings against the security forces and Shia residential or commercial areas are still a regular occurrence. A blast claimed by IS hit a Shia Muslim mosque on Friday.
The rise of the ultra-hardline group, which is battling government forces over control of vast territory in northern and western Iraq, has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict, mostly between Shias and Sunnis that emerged after the US-led invasion in 2003.
